Let's offroad / mountain bike / mtb / ride dirt

I hate my High Rollers and one seems to be suffering from the wonk issue. Was about to buy some WTB Vigilante/Trail Boss. Anyone tried them?

@Dogs has

I don't know. Never really got on with the Contis I've tried before ( not those ones )

Much as I liked various Maxxis tyres, this talk of a batch of wonky ones puts me off a little

hans dampf faster than a mezcal?!

And you wonder where your KOMs are!

As I have mentioned, both of mine are wonky - and it's not a little wiggle, it looks like the wheel is properly out of true.

My rear 2.3" High Roller is so wonky that it rubs the frame - which is supposed to clear a 2.6"...

It is a 2? year old tyre by now and I don't recall it being wonky before. Could be user error but they were seated correctly. Odd.

@Dogs did you like those WTBs then? Seem reasonably priced on CRC at the moment.

I've bought Cobti Trail Kings. I shall report back

Vigilante/Trail Boss. Anyone tried them?

Yeah, they're good. Only reason I replaced them was because I fancied something in 2.6" flavour.

Not from Planet X I hope.

Nah. From bikester.dk
£48 inc shipping

The chain snapped and I shredded my shin a few months ago, so went back to road cycling. It was okay until recently. After three days consecutive near-death brake-slamming t-bone incidents on roundabouts, I want to resurrect the mtb.

I believe it’s 9spd XT, and the last chain to snap was a brand new Shimano, after a matter of weeks/months. Can’t be sure if it was the link that the chain was attached, or a failure elsewhere.

What is the ‘strongest’ best value chain available? X9/X10?

Happy to use a 10 or even 11 speed instead of 9 speed chain, so long as it’s the best value available option.

I've snapped a few MTB chains and it was always at a joining link (AFAICT)

Had better luck with SRAM 951, but may be due to the power links being better at holding a chain together

I'd stick with 9 speed, Shimano or SRAM (whichever's cheapest). I'll always use a quick-link (if a Shimano chain, I never use the snap-off joining pins).

I've snapped a few MTB chains and it was always at a joining link

Alright show off!

Good, I got a pair from them and the beads were all fucked up.

Ordered a 951 from Halfrauds collect at store, £16 rrp but didn’t feel like messing about for the sake of £2 price match. They called immediately no 951’s in stock, so they gave me a 971 for the £16. Score.

For what its worth nearly every Maxxis tire I've used in the past few years has been wonky to various degrees.
Have 2.3" minion dhf/r's on my trails bike and both tires have a section where the shoulder tread seems out of alignment and makes it look like the wheel is buckled or the tire isn't seated.
Have a set of 2.4/2.5 minions in heavier casing that have the same issue but much worse than the 2.3's.
Maybe maxxis have had this issue longer than I remember but back in the day I religiously used Maxxis High Rollers on dh bike and went through a lot of them. I don't remember ever seeing this issue back then. Seems to have been more of an issue in past 5 or so years. I dont understand how the issue still seems to persist.

I use Schwalbe Magic Mary's front and rear all year round on my gnarly bikes and will move to Schwalbe tires for the trail bike when the Maxxis ones wear out.

Love Allen Millyard's enthusiasm

https://youtu.be/S39oR_7Vwf8

The Flying Millyard is an engineering legend.

I watch all his videos on mashing motorbike engines together even though I've never ridden anything over 50cc in my life. How he makes serious engineering look so simple in a relatively basic garage/shed blows my mind.

It’s when he starts doing precision machine work on the grass then heats things on the bbq that it gets serious OG.

And the copious use of a 30 year old hacksaw

Allen Millyard must live the happiest existence tinkering in the shed like that. I'm very envious.
Absolutely love it.

I forget how and why the rear shock works, I remember something about it being the same design as the shocks used in a tank or landing gear or something similarly ridiculous.

But at the 11.28 mark, how can the shock be run like that with what looks like zero rebound damping? Does it somehow rebound slower when sitting in the travel?

Dat is bangin'